Not what I was hoping for

Last night I finally got to meet the regular teacher for my Thursday yoga class. She's very sweet, but I don't like her teaching style. She doesn't explain things in ways I understand. For example, we were standing in front of the wall, bent 90 degrees, with our hands on the wall, so we made a right angle. We were supposed to lengthen through our bodies and then dip our chests while still pulling back through our hips while pushing into the wall with our hands--thus lengthening the body. I didn't realize that we weren't supposed to let our backs arch down. Instead of saying "don't go into a cat tilt/backbend," though, she just said "keep lengthening" and then (after asking if she could touch me) pulled my hips back. I thought she meant I needed to be further away from the wall, so I started to back up with my feet. "Without moving your feet!" she said. And I was flummoxed. She wasn't giving me direction about specific anatomy or anything. Just "keep lengthening." She eventually demonstrated, but I still don't understand how what she did was any different than what I was doing originally (before I let my back arch). And then she just let us lie in silence during Savasana, instead of talking us through or occasionally reminding us to relax certain areas. *sigh* It's not that she's a bad teacher...she's just not my style of teacher. She's not Gopi. I miss you, Gopi.

I'm also less than thrilled with the West Coast Dance classes. The teacher continues to be annoying (he's yammering a little less, at least), and I don't like his teaching style, either. I don't get anything out of doing the footwork alone before leaning how to lead a move, and it seems we spend a lot of time doing that.

Basically, when it comes to learning physical things like dance and yoga, I need someone to give me specific anatomical instruction--where does the movement originate, where is the momentum. Give me technical details, please. Neither of these instructors use that in their methods, so I'm frustrated and bored because I am not learning from the class. Well, frustrated and bored in dance class, anyway. I have enough background with yoga that I can at least fake/make it through most of that class, even if I'm not feeling really into it like I used to with Gopi.

BLAH.